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Sunday, 6 October 2013

Food Profile: Indigenous Nigerian herbs and spices

Hello Blog fam!

Hope y'all are doing great. Did you know that some of the very
expensive IMPORTED green herbal teas we buy is non-other than leaves of the moringa trees
we use to fence and beautify our houses or even feed our goats with???

Or that the curry powder we know is a
blend of different spices??? The most confusing which I’m
still unsure of is that Basil leaves which we mostly get from supermarkets is
actually dried Scent leaves a.k.a Nchuawun / Efinrin!!! :s

Scent Leaves a.k.a Nchuawun or Ahimu (Igbo), Efinrin (Yoruba)

I don’t know how true that is but a lot of people seem to agree with that. I've
come to a conclusion that we've got most herbs, spices and plants in Nigeria
but since they go by different names due to the diverse tribes and ethnic
groups, they've been lost in translation.
Please share any Herbs, spices, or plants whose local and foreign names
you know. If you know their uses please
share also. We’d love to be enlightened.

I beg to differ on this matter. Today we give credit for the yellow pepper to the Cameroons, yesterday some silly Nigerians claimed the rubbish green pineapples from Cotonou was the best or Ghana ankara is suddenly better that anything Nigeria has produced. All bullshit. Nigeria has good fertile lands and our land produce some of the richest crops on earth. Though am not sure of the true origin of the yellow pepper that some people call Cameroon pepper and some Ghana pepper but I know that before traders started importing it from Cameroon we had it in Nsukka. My mom lived in Nsukka in the 1950's and told us stories in the early 80's about the lovely scented yellow pepper and a variety of palm oil that can preserve soup for more than a week without refrigeration. These two she said was indigenous to the Nsukka people. The pepper was called 'Ose Nsukka'. When she got some from a friend from Nsukka we planted it in our small farm in Lagos here and everyone who partook of it loved it. Dobby, your doing a good job here but please educate our people better.

Am always here but don't really read comments but this got me today.BASIL is very very different from Scent leaf and I don't quite agree with the substitution thing. Basil is very sweet while my good old Nchawu is sharp if you know what I mean....moi Dobby

Green tea is actually green tea unless the "green herbal tea" is mixed with several herbs including green tea leaves companies labeling Moringa as green herbal tea are misleading people. Green tea is made from the same leaves as black tea only the process is different which allows the leaves to remain green hence the term green tea which is great if you are trying to get rid of belly fat.

I am on this with you Dobby, I have been searching for local names of some spices and herbs. For now I buy from shop rite, park n shop and interestingly you can get a wide range of spices from this stores.

My name is Swati and I work with a company called Surgery Assistance India (www.surgeryassistanceindia.com). We are a Medical tourism company and we assist International patients who are seeking treatment in India. We assist many patients from Africa and we also provide them African Cuisine.

Could you suggest some recipies that we can serve and that will be good for their health. Also, the ingredients that are available in India will also be a little different than Africa, I will be grateful if you could also give me some replacements for the ingredients that are not available here.

Great to find this blog, was looking for Nigerian spices. I am thinking of making tea out of most of our spices, like scent leave/nchawu, Utazi, Achara leaf, Pepper fruit, alligator pepper, negro pepper/Uda, Ehure. There are some spices from the Benin area but can't remember what they are called, especially pepper soup spices.

I combine mint and Lemon balm leave with honey as tea. Very healthy. It contains Iron, vitamin K (good for you if you are bleeding), beta- Carotene (prevents stroke and high blood pressure).

Unfortunately not enough research has been done on our Nigerian spices, it could be good to know the chemical composition of this different spices so we know how to combine them.

This is a challenge for Botany, Chemistry, Biochemistry in our Nigerian Universities.The chinese and Indian come frequently to Nigeria to study our herbs and take samples and seeds to plant in there countries and sell back to us.Nigeria Researchers in this area wake up. The world is tired of waiting for us and they come here to get it themselves.Sometimes I wonder the purpose of Universities in Nigeria, Universities bring about innovation, but instead in Nigeria it is the Illitrates persons that do this in Nigeria. I don't know what University Professors in Nigeria are doing honestly.Thanks again Dobby for the good work, Please could you make contact with any Nigeria University to publish the chemical content of all our herbs and spices in Nigeria. I manage to find only one publication with a few spices. search google for the article: "Studies on the chemical and antinutritional content ofsome Nigerian spices"Authors: Friday O. Uhegbu1*, Emeka E. J. Iweala2 and Ijeoma Kanu3

dong quai "Angelica sinensis", commonly known as or "female ginseng" is indigenous to China. Liquorice or licorice which is the root of "Glycyrrhiza glabra" is a legume that is native to southern Europe and parts of Asia.

Nice blog. I think you should paste a link of your thread on www.nairaland.comwe need blogs with rich and educative contents like this. aspiring bloggers need to see this to know blogging shouldn't be all about celebrity gossip.

Hi dobby, nice blog you have here. I have interest in this area. At the moment am carrying out a research on some common food seasonings consumed in Nigeria and comparing them with our traditional seasonings. in the course of this work i came across your blog and i actually got some ideals from it. keep it up!

Hi Annie, Fenugreek (Known as "Methi") is not indigenous to Nigeria and therefore has no local name. However, it is very easily obtainable at local indian shops (there are some at Ilupeju and EmJays at Adeola Odeku in Victoria island Lagos).You can get both the dried leaves and seeds there.

mint is not indigenous to Nigeria so it's rarely grown everywhere except for some select few places. Click on the "Where to get foreign fruits and vegetables in Nigeria" link above to order from the people there.

mint is not indigenous to Nigeria so it's rarely grown everywhere except for some select few places. Click on the "Where to get foreign fruits and vegetables in Nigeria" link above to order from the people there.

almond seed is the common fruit that yoruba called aba. am using this opportunity to invite you to the launching of my book entitled herbal therapy on 21st June, 2016 @ federal college of Dental Technology and Therapy, Enugu: a book that teaches how to use herbs to prevent, control and cure diseases. about 150 plants are been selected for different diseases, their local names(in the major Nigerian languages) also in the book. The interesting part is the well stressed method of preparation and administration.

Hello just came across tis post I stock turmeric,tamarind,cinnamon, Fenugreek,henna,cow ghee, shea butter ,coconut oil,orange peel, and other spices my location is Nasarawa state but I make deliveries nationwide.

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